The No. 4-seeded Pioneer men’s lacrosse team outscored Albany 19-14 on Saturday in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium to advance to take on No. 5-seeded North Carolina in the quarterfinals in Indianapolis, Ind. on Sunday.
“When you get NCAA opportunities, they are special,” said head coach Bill Tierney. “It is a rare and unique thing to be with these young men. We go through such an emotional yet wonderful ride. Win or lose, this has been an incredible group of seniors that we have. I’m very happy that we live to play another day. Congratulations to Albany on a great game and an outstanding season. They are more than you can imagine on trying to defend that team. It was an honor to play against Albany.”
Despite battling Albany’s top-ranked offense, sophomore midfielder Wes Berg led the Pioneers with a career-high eight goals and nine points in the game. The game was played in front of a record crowd of 2,621 fans, topping the previous record from the last time the Pioneers hosted an NCAA game in 2011 when 2,575 fans attended.
“I was probably a lot younger and there was no goalie in the net [the last time I scored eight goals],” said Berg. “Any goal is important in a game like this especially going back and forth. Their defense was looking to get the ball back to the offensive player and they were pushing up on us a lot, but it was a lot of fun playing lacrosse in a game like this.”
Also scoring for the Pioneers were seniors attackman Eric Law and midfielder Cam Flint who each scored four goals, sophomore attack Sean Cannizzaro with two goals and sophomore midfielder Eric Adamson with one goal. Adamson and freshman attackman Gordie Koerber each tallied three assists in the effort as well.
Sophomore Ryan LaPlante and junior Jamie Faus split time in goal with LaPlante making eight saves and allowing six goals in the first 30 minutes and Faus taking over the second half and making seven saves and allowing eight goals. Senior midfielder Chase Carraro won 22-of-35 face-offs and snagged nine ground balls.
The Thompson trio led Albany in scoring on Saturday. Sophomore midfielder Lyle Thompson led the team with four goals and one assist, while junior attackman Miles Thompson finished with one goal and five assists and junior attackman Ty Thompson added three goals.
“We knew all week that it was going to be a track meet type of game and an exciting game for the fans to be a part of,” said Law. “Albany is such a great team, and the Thompson trio can score goals at will. It was fun to get up and down the field and take advantage of the opportunities we had.”
Albany opened the scoring just 2:30 into the game to take an early 1-0 lead, but Denver responded less than 30 seconds later with a goal from Cannizzaro to knot the game at 1-1. The Great Danes scored the next two to take a 3-1 lead with six minutes remaining in the opening frame.
Denver knotted the score with a pair of goals from Berg and Law to send the game into the second quarter with both teams tied at 3.
Albany opened the scoring in the second quarter with a goal just under three minutes in before Denver responded to take their first lead of the game. Berg found the net twice in a row to put the Pioneers up 5-4 with 9:37 remaining in the first half.
Albany leveled the score with nine minutes remaining in the period before Denver went on a four-goal run sparked by Berg’s fourth goal of the game, which Law and Cannizzaro followed up with one each before Berg capped off the run with his fifth goal of the evening to give the Pioneers a 9-5 lead. Albany added one final goal in the first half, stopping the Pioneer run and cutting the lead to 9-6 to send both teams into the locker room for intermission.
The Great Danes continued their scoring trend and opened the second half with a goal less than three minutes into the third quarter. Law sent the team to double-digits with a goal at 6:39 to make the score 10-7, but Albany answered seven seconds later to cut the lead to two goals again.
Berg scored his sixth goal to complete the sock-trick with just shy of eight minutes remaining in the third frame before following it up with another tally to give the Pioneers a 12-8 lead. Albany added two-straight goals before Flint, Adamson and Law added a goal apiece in the final two minutes of the third quarter, giving Denver a 15-10 lead at the start of the final stanza.
Flint struck first in the fourth quarter to stretch the Pioneers’ scoring streak to four unanswered, but Albany responded with a pair of goals to cut the lead to 16-12. Flint found the net for the second time in the final frame to extend the lead back to five goals before Albany responded with another pair of goals, but the Pioneers managed to regain the five-goal lead with another goal from Berg and one from Flint to make the score its final 19-14 margin.
Denver is set to face-off against North Carolina on Sunday in Indianapolis at either 10 a.m. or 12:30 p.m. in the quarterfinals.
